


this is how making friends works, right?

by AxolotlQuestions



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: its time to do a friendship y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27579688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AxolotlQuestions/pseuds/AxolotlQuestions
Summary: sometimes you just gotta climb a hill at 4 am and learn feelings. what else are ya gonna do, go back to sleep?
Kudos: 2





	this is how making friends works, right?

Aster is aware that it’s some ungodly hour in the early morning, yes, and that she should really be sleeping, but she just can’t help it. She heard something flitting through the underbrush nearby, and whoops, what do you know, she’s wide awake and full of energy and pacing around camp trying to get rid of it.

She’s a light sleeper. Has been for as long as she cares to remember, even when she was a little kid spending her first night in the guild building’s attic, lost and confused and wondering where her mother had gone but glad that she’d have a roof over her head. Maybe even before that, when worrying about a roof and a mother would’ve never even crossed her mind, and she’d spend the night with her window open, waking up every now and then from the sound of wind drifting into her room, and then deciding to just stay up and listen.

Her mother hated when she’d do that. But then, her mother wasn’t exactly fond of a lot of things about her, so… 

…Anyway, what was it that she was thinking about? Sleeping light? Yeah, sure. You won’t hear her complaining about it. It comes in handy in her line of work, spending as much time in uncharted territory as she does, dealing with potentially hostile wildlife or magical phenomena or whatever weirdass shit is going on in this big, terrifying and wonderful plane of existence that she lives in. 

( _ Planes _ , she reminds herself. There’s more of them. Gods, there’s more of them.)

She walks another lap around camp just mulling that over. There’s  _ more _ of them, and she gets to (has to) be the one to map them out. She gets a rush from that, excited more so than fearful, but only by so much.

There’s absolutely no way she’s getting back to sleep now. Seems like walking around had the opposite effect that she wanted, and now she feels even more awake than before. 

Dammit. 

The fuck is she supposed to do now? It’s some ungodly hour in the morning, so it’ll probably be a while before anyone’s awake enough for her to talk to, and she’s definitely not just going to sit here twiddling her thumbs waiting for everyone to wake up, because come  _ on how boring is that _ .

She hears mumbling from the tent closest to her. Well, louder than mumbling. Whoever’s in there honestly sounds more like they’re having a full-on conversation, albeit a quiet one, and that gives Aster hope because, hey! Maybe she doesn’t have to sit around with only her thoughts for company after all.

“Hey, you good in there?” She peeks into the tent, and yeah, maybe that wasn’t the best idea on her part? To be fair though, she can’t exactly knock when it’s a tent, and it’s not like she’s barging in and making herself at home. If whoever’s in there tells her to fuck off or tries to deck her in the face for spooking them or invading their privacy, she’ll deal with it. 

She doesn’t get a response, at least not a verbal one, but she does get Khova staring at her like deer caught in the lights. Just Khova, oddly enough. Aster’s brows knit together, and she blinks a couple times. 

Wonder who he was talking to.

“Do you need something?” Khova asks after an awkward couple of seconds. His tone is defensive, though not quite enough to seem hostile. He sounds just like a little kid getting caught doing something that they think they’re not supposed to. 

_ Like leaving the window open at night, maybe, _ Aster thinks, and then immediately tries to unthink. She smiles, carefree and easy. “Just checking in, I guess. Thought I heard something going on.” She pauses. “You a sleeptalker, by the way?”

Khova frowns. “Not as far as I’m aware. Why?”

“Oh, well,” Aster scratches the back of her neck. “I thought I heard you talking to someone, but it looks like it’s just you? So…”

He glances over his shoulder and frowns harder at whatever he might be seeing. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Aster also looks, but she doesn’t see shit. Nothing that would be upsetting, at least. Unless he found an empty tent and old bedroll upsetting, which would be fair. They’re not really the most comfortable even for someone used to camping out in the wilderness, no doubt Princey finds them even worse. She hums. “Must’ve been some crazy dream you were having, though, if it got you that chatty. I know Erica gets those sometimes, so I mean, I get it. I guess?”

“No,” Khova shakes his head. “I don’t dream the way that you do.”

“Yeah?”

“We Kalashtar see the memories of our bonded Quori when we sleep,” he explains, like he’s reciting from a textbook. “It’s an expression of the link that we and our spirits share, and it sets us apart from those without Quori, whose dreams are usually filled with meaningless nonsense.”

Aster’s not really sure what a ‘Quori’ is, but she smiles and nods along anyway. “Is that right?”

“Of course it is. I was taught by the greatest tutors my father could find, you know. It’s expected of me to know about my people and our culture, to prepare me for when I take the throne.” His brow furrows. “Did my father not explain this to you? I thought he’d make sure you all had at least some understanding of how our people function.”

At the mention of the Kalashtar king, Aster rolls her eyes. Guy really needed to loosen up. “I dunno, man. Maybe?” She shrugs. “I wasn’t exactly hanging onto his every word or anything. No offense, but your old man’s kind of a pain in the neck, y’know?”

She thinks she gets a smile from that. A tiny one. Absolutely miniscule. But it still counts, and she considers it a success. “I think I know what you mean, yes.”

“Hmm.” As nice as it is that they’re managing an actual conversation, Aster would really rather not be the cause of everyone having to deal with a cranky, sleep-deprived prince in the morning, so she’ll just go and find something else to do, thanks. “Welp. I guess I’ll go now? I mean, you’re probably wanting to get back to snoozing, right?”

Khova glares at his bedroll. “I highly doubt that I’ll be falling asleep anytime soon.” 

“Ground not soft enough for ya?” Aster grins. “You know that’s the best one we have, right? I know it’s not great, but when you’re living in the wilderness like this you gotta make do.”

He continues to glare at the bedroll, as if the thin wool blanket lying tangled on the ground were the source of all that was wrong in the world. “No, I don’t think I can,” he says. “I probably wouldn’t be able to fall asleep before morning even if I did, anyway.”

Aster frowns. “Well, yeah, but aren’t you tired?” 

“Less than you would think.” There he goes again, looking over his shoulder and frowning at something that she can neither see nor hear. “I’m actually feeling very awake right now, thanks to you coming here and disrespecting my privacy.”

“Huh.” Well, it looks like they’re both going to be up for a while, then. Actually, that gives Aster an idea… “Sorry about that, my bad. Hey, could you wait here a minute?”

She heads back to her own tent and grabs a couple things—backpack, two lanterns, one of her shortswords, a whole fuckton of trail mix, and a note—before returning. She tosses Khova one of her lanterns with a short, “Here, catch.” He catches it, but not without fumbling with it a little and getting on her case for throwing it at him without warning, which, y’know. Fair.

“So, Khova,” she says, after apologizing for the lantern. “Ever been hiking?”

\---

Okay, so. She figured he was gonna complain at least a little, and she was totally right about that. The Kalashtar Princey had scoffed at her hiking idea first, and it was only after some very incessant pleading on her part that he let himself be dragged out of his tent and toward what she thinks is probably a clifftop, from what she saw earlier. Even now, more than halfway to the top, Khova’s still dragging his feet.

She doesn’t get  _ why _ , though! He’s been doing a surprisingly good job of keeping up with her, so it’s not like he’s in bad shape or anything. And she’s been sure to let him know.

“Y’know, I thought you were gonna call it quits on me about half a mile back!” she says cheerily, holding her lantern in front of her with one hand and using her shortsword to cut up some of the tougher plants in the way. She’ll probably need to give the blade a good sharpen once they get back to camp, horrible misuse of it as this is. “Good on you for sticking with me this far!”

“I’m hardly a weakling, you know!” Khova protests. Aster waits for him to catch up a little before pushing onward. Can’t have him getting lost on her watch. That’d just be awful for her conscience. “Father had me participate in physical training along with my studies. I just didn’t think I’d have to do it here, too.”

She pauses and glances over her shoulder at him. “Training?”

“Yes?” Khova trudges up the slope, almost tripping over a tree root protruding from the ground. He looks vaguely miffed at it, but not any more than he does at everything else on this hike. “Why else would you have me come out here and make me climb up this hill when I’m supposed to be resting? This is part of some strange kind of training regiment that they do where you’re from, isn’t it?”

“What—” Aster turns around. She thinks back to the training she did with that ranger conclave when she was still trying to figure out how the hell she was supposed to find the interdimensional portals that she needed for her map and blanches. Brief as her time with them was, the stuff they did was  _ intense _ . No way she’s putting him through that. “Nah nah nah, you’ve got it wrong, buddy. We’re just doing this for fun.”

He pauses. “...Fun?”

“Well, I mean, yeah? I really like doing this kinda thing, so guess I was hoping you would too? I know it’s not everyone’s idea of a great time, but it’s better than lying awake in a tent all night, I think.” She thinks for a moment, and then sighs. “I guess I should’ve asked what you wanted to do first, huh? Man, this friend-making stuff is hard…”

Khova doesn’t reply. Instead, he looks deep in thought. 

Aster hums, and she glances at a rocky outcrop nearby. “Hey, Khova?” He glances at her, and she jerks her thumb at the rocks. “Why don’t we take a break?”

\---

“Here.” Aster hands him a bundle of trail mix, and she’s pleasantly surprised when he doesn’t immediately turn up his nose at it. “You hungry?”

He opens the bundle and stares. “What is it?”

“Eh, dried fruit and nuts, mostly. Grain clusters. Chocolate. I threw in some candied ginger to give it a little kick, though, so watch out for that.” She pops a handful into her mouth. “It’s not exactly a meal, and it’s definitely nothing fancy, but it should tide you over ‘til we can eat some actual breakfast.”

Khova carefully picks a single raisin out of the bundle and eats it. He is, predictably, not impressed. Aster snickers.

“Yeah, I know. But it’s better when you eat the different stuff together! Promise.” She shoves another handful in her mouth, as if to prove her point. Khova mimics her, swallows, and then grabs some more from his bundle. “Good?”

“The food at the palace is better,” he replies. Doesn’t stop eating, though, so she counts it as a win.

“Yeah, I bet.” She ties her bundle back together and tosses it back into her backpack. “So... We can head back down, if you want.” She taps her fingers on her knee. “I, uh. Kinda feel bad for dragging you up here, now.”

Khova stares at her for a moment. “...I’m sorry.” 

“You what now?”

“For ruining your fun. You were only trying to enjoy yourself by coming out here, and then I was rude to you and ruined it,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

Aster blinks. “No, it’s cool. You don’t need to apologize or anything.” Her brows knit together. “I mean, the point was for both of us to have fun, not just me. If I wanted to come up here by myself I would’ve just. Done that?”

“Oh.” Khova frowns. “I’m sorry for not having fun, then?” He stares at his trail mix. “I’ve never been hiking before, so this is still very new to me. I don’t quite know how to feel about it yet.”

That… Well, Aster kind of figured, to be honest. But she’s not just gonna say that out loud or anything, no need to kick the guy while he’s down. “Yeah?” Instead, she nods along and asks, “What did you do for fun, then? I’m sure it wasn’t all studying and training, right?”

“I would read storybooks, when I had the time,” Khova replies. And then, after a little while, he adds, “I… would also try to write my own, sometimes.”

Aster hums. She’s never really been one for reading and writing, herself. Not that she doesn’t appreciate a good story. It’s the books that are the problem. Sitting down with one just makes her feel antsy. Stories are cool, though. Storytellers, too. “You know, Lettuce is always writing stuff in that book of her’s. You guys should talk. I think you’d become pretty fast friends, what with the similar interests and all.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she smiles. “Who knows, maybe you guys’ll collab on some cool epic poem or something, and then you can share it with the rest of us.”

He returns the smile a little hesitantly. “I think that would be nice.”

“Mhm.” Aster stands and brushes the imaginary dust off of her clothes. “So, you ready to go back?”

Khova thinks for a moment, peering down the slope with his lantern raised at the trail that Aster had carved out on their way up, and then looking over his shoulder at the distance they’d still have to walk before they reach the top. They’ve been out long enough that, while there’s still far from enough light that he’d be able to see without the lantern, the sky has brightened to the point where he can make out the silhouettes of the trees against it.

“Actually,” he says, “could we keep going? I want to see what’s at the top of this hill. If that’s alright.” 

Aster grins brightly and grabs her own lantern in response.

\---

The rest of the walk is easier. The slope of the hill levels out the higher and higher they climb, and conversation comes a little more easily, too. Maybe their earlier talk did them some good. Maybe the sleep deprivation and physical exertion has left them both too tired to be standoffish. It takes them another half-hour, give or take, to reach the top of the hill, and by now there’s just enough light for the lanterns to be unnecessary. 

“Aster?” Khova’s no longer dragging his feet, which is nice. He’s also been stopping them every once in a while, to ask about a plant or an animal that catches his eye, a little more eager to learn about his surroundings now that he can actually see them. Aster supposes he would be curious about them, growing up surrounded by ice and snow like he did.

She glances at him, in the middle of cutting down another shrub with her sword, ready to identify another interesting bug or tell him which plants in the area are edible. “Yeah?”

“Why were you awake earlier?” He stops walking to wait for her to finish clearing the rest of the path. “I know you were checking on me, but what were you doing before that?”

“Before?” Aster hacks apart the last of the undergrowth, and yeah, she’s definitely gonna find a whetstone when they get back to camp. “Just walking around camp, I guess? I’d been up for a while by that point.”

She returns her sword to its sheath and continues up the path, glancing over her shoulder every now and then to make sure that Khova’s keeping pace. He’s quiet for a moment, and then he asks, “Did you have some sort of crazy dream?”

“Nah. I don’t dream like you do.” She grins. “Too light of a sleeper for that. I just got woken up by a breeze or something, but then I couldn’t fall back asleep again, so I decided to walk around a little to tire myself out, and— hey, we made it!”

She runs forward and manages to stop just short of falling a good hundred feet into the river below. Like she thought, there’s a cliff. Poor Khova, she probably gave him a heart attack with that.

Still, this cliff does have a pretty nice view to it, looking over the woods and the river below. They even managed to get here in time to catch the last of the sun rising over the horizon. She lets out a cheer, throwing her hands up in the air and then turning to Khova with a grin. He watches with a sort of quiet wonder as the sun climbs higher and higher, its light catching on the needles of the pines in the forest and the river water as it rushes by. 

“Hey.” Aster holds a hand up. Khova stares at her, questioning. “High five?”

Khova continues to stare. Oh, this poor, sheltered princeling. He doesn’t know what it is!

“Y’know, like—” She claps her hands together to demonstrate. “It’s a thing friends do? When they do something neat together?”

His eyes widen. “We’re friends?”

“Uh, yeah? Of course.” She holds up her hand again. “So? Five?”

He hesitates for a moment, and then takes a step forward and claps his hand against hers, a smile on his face. It is, objectively, the worst, most awkward high five that Aster has ever experienced, but you know what? That’s fine. There’ll be better ones later.


End file.
